Michael Robertson in his home on in Washington, D.C. Years ago, he didn't feel well and chalked it up to work stress. Unfortunately, the doctor had a more dire diagnosis: stage 4 rectal cancer.⠀⠀Robertson was only 35 at the time — unusually young for this diagnosis. His treatment involved chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and two experimental treatments. Those have kept him alive for six years, but his cancer has not been stopped.⠀⠀One challenge is that Roberson's tumor is driven by a very common mutation and there's no drug that can target that mutation directly.⠀⠀Scientists are trying to develop drugs to counteract an "undruggable" genetic variant that's responsible for about 30 percent of all cancer cases. It's high risk — high reward research. Follow the link in our bio for the full story. (Credit: @kellyjosmart | Kelly Jo Smart for NPR)

As a parent, how can you tell if a school is good? Sir Ken Robinson, an education expert who is known for his wildly popular TED talk, is out with a new book that helps parents navigate the choices. (Credit: LA Johnson/NPR)

People might not think of winter as a fruitful season for foraging wild edibles, but nutritionist and expert forager Debbie Naha says there's a lot out there that you can find year-round.

Naha first got into foraging during college, when a fellow student told her that you could eat the dandelions growing on the campus lawn. That sparked her interest in wild plants; she's been learning to identify and cook with them ever since.

Naha guided us on a winter foraging walk at Climbers Run Nature Preserve in Pequea, Pa., then showed us how to prepare her recipe for pasta with the wild greens she found. See how she made a tea from spicebush twigs and cooked with chickweed, hairy bittercress, field garlic and purple dead nettle. (Credit: NPR)

Activist Lyudmila Savchuk infiltrated an online troll farm in St. Petersburg, Russia. She was tasked with writing posts that would inflame anti-American sentiment among Russians. Others at the factory would write negative posts about American politicians, the war in Ukraine and America's NATO allies. "That feeling from the Soviet times — I can feel it everywhere," she tells NPR. (Credit: Jolie Myers/NPR)

As early as your mid-40s, especially if you're sedentary, your heart muscle can show signs of aging, losing its youthful elasticity and power. But moderately strenuous exercise can change that. (Credit: @studioria | Maria Fabrizio for NPR)

Students at Eastern Senior High in Washington, D.C., prepare to release balloons for the victims of the Parkland school shooting and for victims of shootings in D.C. One month after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, thousands of schools are becoming sites of protest. At 10 a.m., students walked out for 17 minutes — one minute for each Parkland victim who died. (Credit: @tyronefoto | Tyrone Turner/WAMU)

Rasha al-Ahmed imagined Europe would be a clean, generous place — not a makeshift tent in an olive grove where the mud is mixed with human waste and rotting food. "A safe life with a house and enough food," she said, shuddering as she wiped fetid mud from her 1-year-old daughter's cheeks. "That's what I hoped for when I crossed the sea from Turkey to Greece." The family arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos in December. Two years ago this month, under a deal the European Union sealed with Turkey, Lesbos and several other Greek Aegean islands became processing centers for migrants arriving to the EU by sea. They aren't allowed to leave these islands until their requests for asylum are processed. Ahmed says she didn't realize that Europe had soured on asylum-seekers and that several EU countries are trying to block them from arriving. A smuggler in Turkey told her and her husband that refugees are welcome in Europe and the family would have to stay for just a couple of weeks in Greece and then could go on to Germany. "Europe does not see us as human," she remembers thinking that day. (Credit: NPR)

Veterans discuss the state of politics in Pennsylvania at American Legion Post 175 in Washington, Pa. The election in southwest Pennsylvania on Tuesday is being closely watched by Democrats and Republicans looking for early clues about how Americans will vote in the midterm elections. (Credit: @cheryldiazmeyer | Cheryl Diaz Meyer for NPR)

Though the band, The Breeders, has returned in various incarnations since 1993, it would be 25 years before the classic lineup — twin sisters Kim and Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson — would record together again. The group's fifth album, ‘All Nerve,’ is a triumphant reflection on a difficult past. (Credit: @_eslahlahlah | Eslah Attar/NPR)﻿

Bill Pruitt, a former television producer on ‘The Apprentice,’ says he feels for White House advisers watching as President Trump goes off script in televised Cabinet Room listening sessions, much as he did on the reality show. Pruitt recalls of ‘The Apprentice’s’ boardroom: "You never knew what was going to happen exactly. It was like the greatest, grandest improvised theater with all the stakes woven into it." (Credit: @ponsphotos | Jessica Pons for NPR)

The first episode of this season's Invisibilia podcast explores how people cope when something happens that fundamentally shifts how they view themselves, including a 74-year-old woman who decides the only way to get over her husband's death is to jump out of an airplane. (Credit: @saraarielwong | Sara Wong for NPR)

The current drug addiction crisis began in rural America, but it's quickly spreading to urban areas and into the African-American population in cities across the country. "It's a frightening time," says Dr. Edwin Chapman, who specializes in drug addiction in Washington, D.C., "because the urban African-American community is dying now at a faster rate than the epidemic in the suburbs and rural areas." Chapman, who works with patients like Norman Hughes, is on the front line of the opioid epidemic crippling his community in the Northeast section of Washington he works with patients like. He heads the Medical Home Development Group, a clinic specializing in addiction medicine. (Credit: @claireeclaire | Claire Harbage/NPR)

When people find out that Malebogo Malefhe uses a wheelchair because she was shot by her boyfriend, the first question they ask is: "What did you do to him [to deserve it]?" ⠀⠀Now Malefhe, who sustained eight bullets from her boyfriend of 10 years, wants to make sure that no woman who has faced domestic abuse is asked this question ever again. Since then, she has devoted herself to fighting gender-based violence in her native Botswana and teaching women that when men hurt them, it's not their fault. The U.S. State Department honored her with a 2017 International Women of Courage award. ⠀⠀For International Women's Day, tell us about a woman who's making life better for other women — and why she inspires you. We'll pick one to profile. (Credit: Ryan Eskalis/NPR) #internationalwomensday

For some people, something as simple as having an IV line inserted can be excruciating. An emergency room doctor noticed a strange pattern. Many of these sensitive patients were regular opioid users. (Credit: @hellogritti | Lorenzo Gritti for NPR)

A quarter of a million Americans die every year from sepsis, which is the body's reaction to overwhelming infection. This cascade of organ failure can be nipped in the bud if health care workers know it's ramping up, but that's often not easy to do.⠀⠀"Sepsis is a really frustrating disease," says Dr. David Carlbom, a critical care pulmonologist, and medical director of the sepsis program at the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. "There's no blood test for sepsis," he says. "There's nothing you can look at under the microscope and say 'this is sepsis.' "⠀⠀So a few years ago, Carlbom set out to devise a system that uses more subtle clues from a patient's day-to-day electronic health records to send up warning flags of impending sepsis. Follow the link in our bio for the full story. (Credit: @iancbates | Ian C. Bates for NPR)

Real-life sales of guitars like Miguel's guitar have soared thanks to the hit Disney-Pixar movie, ‘Coco.’ And not just in U.S. stores. Paracho, a small town in Mexico's western highlands, famous for its generation of guitar makers, can't keep up with orders for the instrument. (Credit: Carrie Kahn/NPR)

Kat McClain describes herself as a long-time dating app user, but it eventually felt like a grind. Frustrated by the process, she hired a matchmaker who helped vet dates and up her online dating game. McClain told her matchmaker, Alexa Geistman, what she was looking for in a serious relationship, and they spent months getting to know each other. Then Geistman went to work. "I meet every single match in person. I ask them all the tough questions," Geistman says. "I really get to know the people and make sure that they're like-minded." (Credit: @ponsphotos | Jessica Pons for NPR)

Ahmed Ali, the day after his cataract surgery. He has just had the bandages removed from his eyes and can see again. Ali, 75, was blind for 5 years. Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally. But a quick surgery and a $4 plastic lens can restore sight. A group from Vermont is offering free surgery in Africa and Asia.(Credit: Jason Beaubien/NPR)

It can feel intrusive to have so much data collected about us, but artist Laurie Frick is optimistic about how big data will evolve. She says it could help us evaluate how we respond to other people. (Credit: @jennliv | Jenn Liv for NPR)